Key Takeaways
- Even the best storytelling won’t appeal to everyone, including stakeholders within your own organization. Set clear expectations upfront by identifying decision-makers and aligning on goals before you begin.
- Your messaging and storytelling will resonate more when grounded in a real understanding of what makes your audience tick, so invest time in personas and buyer journeys.
- Effective collaboration sometimes means reducing the number of stakeholders and can help you achieve meaningful creative on time and on budget.
The most-streamed song of all time is “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, clocking in at 5.2 billion listens. Do you love it? Have you even heard it? Maybe you’re more into Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” which has been streamed 4.7 billion times. If so, fans of several other artists would like a word.
The takeaway: Even the best stories and storytellers—in music and movies and books, and, yes, in B2B marketing—aren’t going to appeal to all people. Which means, the creative marketing you and/or your agency develop is not guaranteed to hit home for everybody. Indeed, it might not even please everybody in your own organization!
Telling creative, effective, and persuasive stories about your products and services takes time, nuance, determination, and a plan. Is it worth it? The answer is often yes, and we have the case studies to back it up. But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy; it can sometimes even be a bit messy.
So how can you navigate this tricky terrain and maximize your chances of a positive outcome? Here are three important things to consider before kicking off a creative project intended to move your target audience through the funnel, and how your organization can collaborate effectively to get it done on time and on budget.
1. Set expectations early
Before your creative project gets started, take the time to ask and answer questions about the business challenge you’re aiming to address, the audience you’re targeting, the key action you want them to take, and any known constraints and requirements. Then write these down in a creative brief you can use to set expectations with stakeholders and your project team.
Orienting people around concrete goals (including measurable KPIs), a shared understanding of your target audience (see #2), and deliverable requirements gives everyone a rubric of sorts that can help separate opinion from objective details and help you achieve your goals more efficiently. It also gives people a tool to navigate conflict.
Many times, a creative brief has been the guiding light for the creative team when narrowing down concept ideas, helped to more quickly resolve contentious discussions about font preference (be sure to link to your brand guidelines!), and kept the overall message focused when proposed script changes threatened to dive into tangential topics.
Also, be sure to take time to consider the dynamics of the team you’ll be working with and potential roadblocks you may face. Ask and answer questions such as:
- Who are the decision-makers and stakeholders for this project?
- Are there things I should do in advance to help them understand our specific goals?
- What is their appetite for evaluating and providing feedback on deliverables where there might not be a single, clear winner?
2. Know your audience, and show them you know them
Because creative is subjective (see above), you can’t guarantee that your storytelling (messaging, art direction, themes, etc.) is going to activate every potential buyer in your audience. But you can almost guarantee that the creative won’t work as well as it could if you don’t understand what makes your audience tick.
Personas and documented buyer journeys can help you keep your target audience’s motivations, influences, and expectations top of mind as you develop and refine your creative. Be sure to include them or link to them in your creative brief. And if you don’t have either, start by documenting what you do know, and then consider investing time in user research and data analytics to create these valuable, reusable resources.
Creative marketing and advertising are most effective and persuasive when they’re rooted in one or more insights about the audience. Whether you’re doing a comprehensive campaign or just a single email or social post, your message will be more relevant and more interesting to prospective customers if you’ve done your homework. That can go a long way toward moving folks down the sales funnel.
3. Does everybody get a vote?
If creative is subjective (again, see above), does that mean it’s impossible to agree on a creative concept, messaging, art direction, a video script, a music track, etc.? Well, it’s not impossible, but it requires a thoughtful combination of collaboration, discipline, and taste, along with a shared understanding and buy-in regarding your project’s goals.
Of these aspects, taste is the hardest to predict and negotiate, and discipline is often subject to powers beyond your control. (Most organizations have competing priorities that can compromise your creative project’s timeline, budget, and general ability to herd your cats.)
But that’s OK because collaboration is actually the most crucial element. If people work together, trust each other, and trust the process, it’s quite possible to develop meaningful, measurable, creative work that moves the needle. And here’s the real truth: effective collaboration might require that not everybody gets a vote. By agreeing to reduce the number of voting stakeholders, you can increase the likelihood of creating worthy creative on time and on budget.
Talk shop with CMD’s creative team
If you’re starting a new marketing or advertising project, or you’re in the middle of a project and need an outside eye and perspective, give us a call. We’d love to talk with you about all things marketing and how to get the most out of the work you’re doing.
